Author Eboo Patel: Spartanburg breaking down religious barriers

Eboo Patel

Eboo Patel will lead a discussion of his latest book at 7 p.m. Monday at Wofford College.

Photo provided

By LAURA CORBINFor the Herald-Journal

Published: Sunday, March 3, 2013 at 3:15 a.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 8:26 p.m.

Spartanburg is on its way to becoming a model of interfaith cooperation led by Wofford College, says Eboo Patel, founder and president of the Interfaith Youth Core, and a community read of his latest book is serving as inspiration.

Wofford and Hub City Books are partnering for the community-wide read of “Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America.”

Patel will lead a discussion of the book at 7 p.m. Monday in Leonard Auditorium in the Main Building at Wofford. The program is free, and a signing will be afterward. Discounted books are available at the Wofford Bookstore and Hub City Books in Spartanburg.

On Tuesday, Patel will be back at Wofford to receive the Sandor Teszler Award for Moral Courage and Service to Humankind. He will speak at the 11 a.m. convocation, also in Leonard Auditorium; that program is also free. The award carries with it an honorary degree, a citation and a $10,000 cash award.

“Spartanburg's reading of ‘Sacred Ground' symbolizes your community's commitment to engaging its diversity toward a common good and the incredible energy you have for creating a better world for our children and our children's children,” Patel said. “The combination of this commitment and energy, I believe, will catalyze Spartanburg into its next phase of interfaith work, a phase characterized by positive action across faiths and cultural differences.”

He said the core of the mission of the Interfaith Youth Core is “the transformation of college campuses into models of interfaith cooperation for the rest of society to emulate. Cities can be models in similar ways, and Spartanburg is on its way to becoming just that.”

Patel hopes readers of “Sacred Ground” will see it as “both a call to action and a retelling of America's story as one of interfaith cooperation. As I write in the book, I believe every inch of American soil is sacred — in part because of the freedoms we have, in part because of how we achieved those freedoms, but in larger part because of the potential we have yet to unearth.”

He adds, “Living in spite of our different faiths is not what makes America great; instead, what makes our nation flourish are the countless contributions we all offer because of our unique religious — and other — traditions. By recognizing our shared values, breaking down barriers and building bridges together, America has become who she is, but our work is not done.

“We live at a time when people of different faiths (and) backgrounds are interacting with greater frequency than ever before. We hear the stories of people who seek to make faith a barrier of division or a bomb of destruction,” he said. “We must change the conversation to tell stories of the people using faith as a bridge of cooperation and nurture a new generation of interfaith leaders who build those bridges.”

When Arsalaan Salehani was a student at Wofford, he encountered Patel during a summer camp experience, and when Salehani returned to campus, he became one of those bridge builders.

“I went to a summer camp at which ‘Acts of Faith' was required reading, and Eboo came to talk to us about our generation's role in defining the faith line and fighting the forces of ignorance and violence,” says Salehani, now a student at the Emory University School of Medicine. “I came back to Wofford the following year motivated and excited to bring a movement like this to Wofford.”

For Salehani, a native of Pakistan and a Muslim, Patel's message is a powerful one that he wanted others to hear.

“If extremist groups can use youth, why can't the interfaith movement include the youth as a catalyst? Not only did this message stress the need for a safe space to discuss religious and non-religious differences and commonalities, but it also included common action for the common good,” he said.

Salehani put his words into action at Wofford, starting the IFYC chapter with another student, Joseph McAbee, a Baptist. Salehani also coordinated the campus commemoration of 9/11 with a student Christian group and worked with the local Christmas in Action service project.

IFYC trains students to build relationships around service and community, Patel says.

“We encourage our young leaders to join together in common action in service projects that not only benefit the community at large, but also provide a framework to form interfaith friendships defined by mutual respect and understanding.

“Wofford's efforts around and commitment to interfaith work are exemplary,” he adds, “and it shines as a model of how colleges — regardless of size, location and religious affiliation — can succeed in this work.”

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